Journey to Orc Island
As told by
Snori Wallburg
Translated from the original hill dwarf by Nathan Miller
This here is a chronicle of my adventures involvin the rescue of a group of orphans who were kidnapped from the Monastery of Heronious outside the town of Highcliff in the Kingdom of Aswald by cultist of Hexor who sold them into slavery on Orc Island.
It was on a Saturday mornin that I was awoke by the sound of frantically ringin church bells. It was the first day of The Month of the Harvest and I was on my way home to join in the Harvest Festival at Flaghill. I was stayin in an Inn at the Monastery of Heronious that night because all the inns in Highcliff proper were full. Naturally I got up to see what the commotion was. Everyone at the monastery had gathered in the main sanctuary. And old priest was there and he explained that all the youngins at the temple orphanage had been kidnapped. Now as luck would have it the local lawmen as well as most able body types were out searching the countryside for some notorious local bandito including some of the more able monks from the monastery. This left the old priest with no one to help rescue the orphans who had been snatched during the night. Now their ain't nothin so vile in this here world as those who would harm helpless little children so I immediately volunteered to track down the varmints responsible and help get the youngins back. A young elf named Aleena also volunteered on account her sister was one of the orphans taken as well. There was also a paladin named Helsa who was training at the temple who offered to join the search though I reckon the old priest would have volunteered her for the job even if she had not spoken up.
The tree of us searched the orphanage and Aleena found an odd lookin holy symbol. The old priest confirmed it was a symbol of Hexor the evil god of war and destruction. His cult was long though to have been stamped out in these parts. Accordin to the priest most of the old strongholds of the cult had been raised following an uprising over a decade ago but there was one hideout that was not destroyed. An old cave only five miles from the monastery.
Sunday 2nd Day of the Harvest Moon, Year of the Horse
We set out for the cave the first thing Sunday mornin. We were set upon half way there by a band of cultist of Hexor but they proved to be no match for my companions and I. After that we found the cave and cleared it of it's inhabitants but none of the orphans were to be found. It just so happened that a group of pirates had docked their boat at an underground river that flowed through the cave. We caught on of the varmints and he confessed, with some persuasion, that he and his mates had sold the children to slavers on Orc Island earlier that day. After gathering some booty from the cave we set sail for Orc Island that night but we had to stop over on a small island on the way there. We didn't figure on findin any trouble but we set a watch anyhow. It a darn good thing we did too because I was attacked by a frightful lookin Ghast just a short bit after sunset. I commenced to raise a racket so as to wake the others as I fought with the beast. Luckily I managed to lop off it's head before it was able to bite any of us.
Monday 3rd Day of the Harvest Moon, Year of the Horse
We arrived at Goldtooth Port by mid day. Goldtooth port is named fer The Goldtooth Goblin Confederation of Traders. It's also the only safe port on Orc Island. We paid to dock our ship for a whole week at quite an expense but there was no use arguin with the goblins as their Ogre security force is quite formidable and prone to rippin ones arms from ones body if they think your a threat to the goblins. We decided to settle down at “The Miner's Pick” a fine establishment run by a highland dwarf named Feargus MacDugal.
Tuesday 4th Day of the Harvest Moon, Year of the Horse
We decided to have a look around the town to try and figure out what happened to the youngins. We weren't havin much luck as it seems there is no formal slave market at Goldtooth Port which struck me as mighty odd seein as how the goblins like to charge fees for just about any thing and everything at the port. We got lucky though when Helsa spotted a young goblin street urchin wearin a tunic from the orphanage. We managed to discreetly corner the little rascal and he told us he got it from a Rockfist Clan orc with a big red hat. We managed to track the orc down at a local drinking establishment but he figured out real quick what were was up to and wouldn't give us any details.
We returned to “The Miner's Pick” to ask Feargus if he knew where the Rockfist Clan lived he drew us a map. Problem was even with a map it was going to be hard get to the place. By road we would have to travel through an Orcish crossroad trading post and that wasn't such a smart thing for our party as Orcish trading post are no were near as “civilized” as Goldtooth Port. There was another way. An old path ran through a forest straight to the Rockfist lands but Feargus warned us that the forest was haunted by all manner of terrible beast and that it would take us at least a day and a half to travel down the overgrown path.
We figured we might need some extra muscle so we headed over to an Ogre bar named “BAR” to see if we could hire a mercenary. Most the Ogre were working for the goblins or various pirates and warlords but there was one Ogre lookin for work. A very cleaver Ogre named Joe who could count all the way to 10 which as could be expected was his price in gold to do the “job”.
So feelin all confident like with our new hireling we headed in the direction of the path through the haunted forest. Just before we got to the trail head however we was set upon by 10 Rockfist orcs.
Aleena Managed to trip a few of em up with some elfy magic that turned the ground under their feet all greasy but their archers were already shootin at us as a pack orcs charged up the hill at us.
I don't know if these orcs were some kinda super orc or if we was just overconfident but the battle didn't go so well for us. Being a big target an all Joe managed to attract an awful lot of attention from the orcs. He went down and I was knocked out shortly after that. apparently Aleena and Helsa faired a little bit better and managed to kill or run off most of the orcs. They also managed to capture an orc named Grotz
Helsa and Aleena had also been hurt pretty badly in the fightin and it became clear we would have to return to town fer some healin. When we got back to town we headed for The Temple of Goldfingers which was the only temple in Goldtooth port. They healed the party for 30 gold and we began to understand why every goblin establishment in the port had “gold” in the title. Feeling just a little beat up we headed back to the Inn for the night and made plans to set out again through the forest in the mornin.
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